And what lessons might be drawn from its long, long history? As it happens, they’re not likely to thrill President Trump, not when the original structure and the myths about it are so impressive. The Donald Trump of China, the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, ordered its construction in the third century BC from walls already in existence, although the final touches weren’t completed until the Ming Dynasty in the seventeenth century. Okay, so what? And so what if the original great, great wall to which he was surely referring - he even spoke about it during the campaign - can’t really be seen from space, not with the naked eye? (Parts of it can, however, be made out in a photo taken in Earth orbit by a Chinese astronaut.) I’m referring, of course, to the Great Wall of China. He arrived on the political scene in 2015 already promoting a future “ great, great wall,” even if it was originally no more than a “ mnemonic device” invented by his handlers to remind him to bring up the issue of immigration on the campaign trail.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2023
Categories |